


In Search of Silver Linings We Discovered Gold

by alphagottadonk



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Angst, Established Relationship, Fluff, Future Fic, M/M, Misunderstandings, no but really this is pretty schmoopy, proposing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-04
Updated: 2014-06-04
Packaged: 2018-02-03 08:38:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1738232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alphagottadonk/pseuds/alphagottadonk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek cleared his throat before saying, “I think I’m going to propose to Stiles.”</p>
<p>The Sheriff almost spit beer all over himself before turning to give Derek an absolutely surprised gape. “Tonight?” He asked, Derek motioning for him to keep his voice down so Stiles didn’t overhear from the dining room.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Search of Silver Linings We Discovered Gold

He would like to say he just suddenly had an epiphany that he wanted to marry Stiles, but that would be a lie. He’d known for a long time that Stiles was the only person he wanted to see himself with, such a pivotal part of his life that he literally couldn’t picture himself without Stiles by his side. He couldn’t even find it in him to be scared about that anymore, because Stiles was it for him and that was that.

He just never thought about actually concreting it until he started noticing the way Stiles’ gaze would linger on wedding shows as he flipped channels on the television, or he would roll his eyes at engagement ring commercials even as his heartbeat stuttered. One time, as they were in bed just on the edge of sleep, he noticed Stiles absently stroking Derek’s ring finger as he talked about how they needed a new set of cookware.

Derek ended up telling the Sheriff first. They had their weekly ‘bonding time’, Stiles called it, where the Sheriff would stop by the house and watch the game with Derek. They usually enjoyed a companionable silence, but this time, Derek cleared his throat before saying, “I think I’m going to propose to Stiles.”

The Sheriff almost spit beer all over himself before turning to give Derek an absolutely surprised gape. “Tonight?” He asked, Derek motioning for him to keep his voice down so Stiles didn’t overhear from the dining room.

“No. Not for a while. I’m just… I think it’s about time.”

He admitted, watching the way the Sheriff’s face slowly went sappy, a smile on his face for the rest of the night.

He didn’t want it to be just nothing. He remembered Scott telling him once that he and Stiles had been joking about how Derek would probably even ask Stiles to marry him in his usual stoic way. ‘here, take this, you idiot,’ Scott had mocked, and Derek really didn’t want to do that. He didn’t want to do exactly what Stiles expected.

He agonized on it for weeks before the idea struck him, as he was sent to do the grocery shopping and happened to pass an aisle stocked with notebooks. He purchased a thick, hardback journal and snuck it into the study that night, neatly writing on the front in marker ‘Reasons I want to marry you’ before turning to the first page and writing one reason down.

He devised a plan; he wasn’t going to fret about writing the list at once. He was going to write down one reason a day until he couldn’t come up with any more. Things like ‘ _you sometimes hum in your sleep’,_   and _'you keep me sane'_ , made their way into the book, every little quirk he could possibly think of written down.  That was the easy part; telling Stiles the reasons Derek wanted to spend his life with him was effortless.

The strenuous part took place at the last half of the book, where he spent hours carving out pages to make a little hideaway compartment where he would put the ring. It was meticulous, not wanting to mess up, and he started spending more time at night sitting in the study working on it.

Sometimes Stiles would stumble into the room, bleary eyed and rumpled, and Derek would hurry to tuck the book away as Stiles mumbled, “It’s late and I can’t sleep without you. Come to bed.”  Sometimes he would give in to Stiles and follow him to bed, but the more time he spent on the book, the more he started to say, “I’ll be in there in a little bit. Just go back to bed. “

He was afraid Stiles was starting to catch on when he stopped bothering to come anywhere near the study, avoiding Derek’s gaze as they cleaned dishes before he would always head up to work on the book. He would actually be devastated if Stiles found out, because then it wouldn’t be special.

_'You've always treated me like I'm worth having happiness'_

_'you save me again and again'_

_'you sing terrible pop songs in the shower'_

_'you manage to look perfect when you wake up. Even with bed-head and morning breath'_

_'your ridiculous pillow talk that makes no sense'_

_'your ridiculous sleep talk that also makes no sense'_

The list grew exponentially, easily, and when the compartment in the back was almost just right, he decided it was time for the hardest part. The ring. He didn’t exactly know the correct etiquette for how to do this; some couples only bought a ring for one person, some bought one for both, but the latter involved both parties knowing.

He started stopping by stores after work, spent a while looking through everything they had before heading home. Stiles had to be onto what he was planning by the way he kept meeting Derek at the door, asking, “Why were you late?”

Except, then Stiles started pushing Derek away. It was subtle at first, little things like not propping his feet in Derek’s lap while they watched TV together, or not telling him how his day was. That quickly escalated though, to pulling away after mere moments when Derek kissed him, or rolling over and going to sleep anytime Derek crawled into bed reaching for him.

Conversations that used to span for hours, that used to keep them up late talking were regressing to little more than a few passing words.  He didn’t know what to think of it, chalking it up to a rough patch.

The ring was perfect. He finally just asked the Sheriff what Stiles’ mother’s ring had looked like and took an explanation to a jeweler, requesting something more subtle that paid homage to it.  It was perfect and had his throat clenching when he saw how it looked in the book compartment.

Six months of working to make this perfect, and he was ready to give it to Stiles. He came home from work and made dinner, had the table set and the book tucked away ready to present to Stiles when he got home.

"Oh, you mean you’re actually not coming home late or hiding away in the study for once?" Stiles bit out when he walked through the door and spotted Derek standing there, wiping his sweaty palms on his pants.  He frowned at the way Stiles mumbled a small, "It’s a freakin’ miracle," under his breath as he made his way to the kitchen for a drink.

"Yeah, about that. Can you sit down? There’s something I want to ask." He responded, following Stiles. He was shocked when Stiles turned on him, barking, "Oh, so it’s okay for you to blow me off whenever you’re out being sketchy as hell doing god knows what, but I should just drop whatever I’m doing to be convenient for you?"

Derek went to ask Stiles what he was talking about, but Stiles didn’t give him a chance to get a word in.  “I mean, seriously. Do you realize it’s been two months since we last had sex? I’m twenty four, Derek. I’m still in need of sex all the time but instead you spend your time in the study. Did I somehow get that gross without realizing it?”

He asked as he made his way to the table and plopped down, grabbing a plate and stabbing at the food with barely contained aggression. “You’ve been pretty much checked out for months now and if I did something wrong, I wish you would just tell me instead of distancing yourself from me.” And oh. Oh. Stiles thought he was trying to detach himself and was going to leave, didn’t he?  He looked absolutely gutted as he poked disinterestedly at a spinach leaf,  and Derek felt like the biggest idiot ever.

"Stiles, no," He breathed, pulling a chair up close to Stiles and sitting down, fingers instantly curling around Stiles’. "No, that’s the furthest thing from the truth." He assured and heaved out a sigh before leaning down to grab the book and setting it in front of Stiles. He watched him read the writing on the front before his eyes boggled open wide, shooting Derek a skeptical look before flipping it open and starting to read the expansive list.

"This one just says ‘your moles’, " He pointed out, voice quiet as he tapped a fingertip over it.

"I like your moles," Derek explained. Stiles flipped through the pages, letting out tiny laughs or awws every once in a while before he got to the last one, number 183 and stared over at Derek, expression awestruck and soft before Derek motioned for him to keep looking.

Stiles flipped through the mostly empty pages before finding the compartment, the ring perched in the middle where Derek had it tied down, watching how Stiles cautiously touched it.

"Is that…?" He untied it and pulled it out to examine it more closely, taking in the mostly smooth, polished silver with the small holes scored out of it, seven of them. "One for each year we’ve been together?" Stiles guessed, voice pitchy and Derek could hear the way he swallowed loudly as he traced a finger over the holes.  It was obvious he got the ode to his parents’ rings.

"I’m sorry I made you think I didn’t care anymore." He sighed, taking the ring and slipping it on Stiles’ finger to see how it looked.  "I’m an idiot basically all the time, but you aren’t going to say no are you?"

Stiles let out an almost hysterical sounding laugh before he was turning to knot his arms tightly around Derek’s neck, pressing a firm, thorough kiss on his lips before leaning in to nose at his jaw.

"You can be such an idiot, but my answer is an absolute, 100% oh my god yes, regardless."

He was forced to drive Stiles to the station after dinner, following him as he sprinted inside yelling, “Dad, oh my god, Dad, he put a ring on it.”

**Author's Note:**

> come say hi at my [tumblr](http://www.larkspurleaf.tumblr.com)


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